Sri Aurobindo Isha Upanishad THE UPANISHADS BOOK I P ART ONE TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY PUB- LISHED BY SRI AUROBINDO Isha Upanishad 1 ÈÙÀ vÀsyamidaÌ sarvaÌ yat kiÜca jagatyÀÌ jagat, tena tyaktena bhuñjÈthÀ mÀ gÐdhaÕ kasya sviddhanam. All this is for habitation1 by the Lord, whatsoever is individual universe of movement in the universal motion. By that renounced thou shouldst enjoy; lust not after any man's possession. 2 kÓrvanneveha karmÀÍi jijÈviØecchataÌ samÀÕ, evaÌ tvayi nÀnyatheto'sti na karma lipyate nare. Doing verily2 works in this world one should wish to live a hun- dred years. Thus it is in thee and not otherwise than this; action cleaves not to a man.3 1 There are three possible senses of vÀsyam, “to be clothed”, “to be worn as garment” and “to be inhabited”. The first is the ordinarily accepted meaning. Shankara explains it in this significance, that we must lose the sense of this unreal objective universe in the sole perception of the pure Brahman. So explained the first line becomes a contradiction of the whole thought of the Upanishad which teaches the reconciliation, by the perception of essential Unity, of the apparently incompatible opposites, God and the World, Renunciation and Enjoyment, Action and internal Freedom, the One and the Many, Being and its Becomings, the pas- sive divine Impersonality and the active divine Personality, the Knowledge and the Ignorance, the Becoming and the Not-Becoming, Life on earth and beyond and the supreme Immortality. The image is of the world either as a garment or as a dwell- ing-place for the informing and governing Spirit. The latter significance agrees better with the thought of the Upanishad. 2 Kurvanneva. The stress of the word eva gives the force, “doing works indeed, and not refraining from them”. 3 Shankara reads the line, “Thus in thee—it is not otherwise than thus—action cleaves not to a man.” He interprets karmÀÍi in the first line in the sense of Vedic sacrifices which are permitted to the ignorant as a means of escaping from evil actions and their results and attaining to heaven, but the second karma in exactly the opposite sense, “evil action”. The verse, he tells us, represents a concession to the ignorant; the enlightened soul abandons works and the world and goes to the forest. The whole expression and construction in this rendering become forced and unnatural. The rendering I give seems to me the simple and straightforward sense of the Upanishad. 6 Isha Upanishad 3 asÓryÀ nÀma te lokÀ andhena tamasÀvÐtÀÕ, tÀÌste pretyÀbhigacchanti ye ke cÀtmahano janÀÕ. Sunless1 are those worlds and enveloped in blind gloom where to all they in their passing hence resort who are slayers of their souls. 4 anejadekaÌ manaso javÈyo nainaddevÀ Àpnuvan pÓrvamarØat, taddhÀvato'nyÀnatyeti tiØÒhat tasminnapo mÀtariÙvÀ dadhÀti. One unmoving that is swifter than Mind, That the Gods reach not, for It progresses ever in front. That, standing, passes beyond oth- ers as they run. In That the Master of Life2 establishes the Waters.3 5 tadejati tannaijati tad dÓre tadvantike, tadantarasya sarvasya tadu sarvasyÀsya bÀhyataÕ. 1 We have two readings, asÓryÀÕ, sunless, and asÓryÀÕ, Titanic or undivine. The third verse is, in the thought structure of the Upanishad, the starting-point for the final movement in the last four verses. Its suggestions are there taken up and worked out. The prayer to the Sun refers back in thought to the sunless worlds and their blind gloom, which are recalled in the ninth and twelfth verses. The sun and his rays are intimately connected in other Upanishads also with the worlds of Light and their natural opposite is the dark and sunless, not the Titanic worlds. 2 MÀtariÙvan seems to mean “he who extends himself in the Mother or the con- tainer” whether that be the containing mother element, Ether, or the material en- ergy called Earth in the Veda and spoken of there as the Mother. It is a Vedic epi- thet of the God Vayu, who, representing the divine principle in the Life-energy, Prana, extends himself in Matter and vivifies its forms. Here it signifies the divine Life-power that presides in all forms of cosmic activity. 3 Apas, as it is accentuated in the version of the White Yajurveda, can mean only “waters”. If this accentuation is disregarded, we may take it as the singular apas, work, action. Shankara, however, renders it by the plural, works. The diffi- culty only arises because the true Vedic sense of the word had been forgotten and it came to be taken as referring to the fourth of the five elemental states of Mat- ter, the liquid. Such a reference would be entirely irrelevant to the context. But the Waters, otherwise called the seven streams or the seven fostering Cows, are the Vedic symbol for the seven cosmic principles and their activities, three inferior, the physical, vital and mental, four superior, the divine Truth, the divine Bliss, the divine Will and Consciousness, and the divine Being. On this conception also is founded the ancient idea of the seven worlds in each of which the seven principles are separately active by their various harmonies. This is, obviously, the right sig- nificance of the word in the Upanishad. Translation & commentary published by Sri Aurobindo 7 That moves and That moves not; That is far and the same is near; That is within all this and That also is outside all this. 6 yastu sarvÀÍi bhÓtÀni ÀtmanyevÀnupaÙyati, sarvabhÓteØu cÀtmÀnam tato na vijugupsate. But he who sees everywhere the Self in all existences and all existences in the Self, shrinks not thereafter from aught. 7 yasmin sarvÀÍi bhÓtÀni ÀtmaivÀbhÓd vijÀnataÕ, tatra ko mohaÕ kaÕ Ùoka ekatvamanupaÙyataÕ. He in whom it is the Self-Being that has become all existences that are Becomings,1 for he has the perfect knowledge, how shall he be deluded, whence shall he have grief who sees everywhere oneness? 8 sa paryagÀcchukramakÀyamavraÍamasnÀviraÌ ÙuddhamapÀpaviddham, kavirmanÈØÈ paribhÓÕ svayambhÓryÀthÀtathyato'rthÀn vyadadhÀcchÀÙvatÈb- hyaÕ samÀbhyaÕ. It is He that has gone abroad — That which is bright, bodiless, without scar of imperfection, without sinews, pure, unpierced by evil. The Seer, the Thinker,2 the One who becomes everywhere, the Self-existent has ordered objects perfectly according to their nature from years sempiternal. 1 The words sarvÀÍi bhÓtÀni, literally, “all things that have become”, is opposed to Atman, self-existent and immutable being. The phrase means ordinarily “all creatures”, but its literal sense is evidently insisted on in the expression bhÓtÀni abhÓt “became the Becomings”. The idea is the acquisition in man of the supreme consciousness by which the one Self in him extends itself to embrace all creatures and realises the eternal act by which that One manifests itself in the multiple forms of the universal motion. 2 There is a clear distinction in Vedic thought between kavi, the seer and manÈØÈ, the thinker. The former indicates the divine supra-intellectual Knowledge which by direct vision and illumination sees the reality, the principles and the forms of things in their true relations, the latter, the labouring mentality, which works from the di- vided consciousness through the possibilities of things downward to the actual man- ifestation in form and upward to their reality in the self-existent Brahman. 8 Isha Upanishad 9 andhaÌ tamaÕ praviÙanti ye'vidyÀmupÀsate, tato bhÓya iva te tamo ya u vidyÀyÀÌ ratÀÕ. Into a blind darkness they enter who follow after the Ignorance, they as if into a greater darkness who devote themselves to the Knowledge alone. 10 anyadevÀhurvidyayÀ'nyadÀhuravidyayÀ, iti ÙuÙruma dhÈrÀÍÀÌ ye nastadvicacakØire. Other, verily,1 it is said, is that which comes by the Knowledge, other that which comes by the Ignorance; this is the lore we have received from the wise who revealed That to our understanding. 11 vidyÀñcÀvidyÀñca yastadvedobhayaÌ saha, avidyayÀ mÐtyuÌ tÈrtvÀ vidyayÀmÐtamaÙnute. He who knows That as both in one, the Knowledge and the Igno- rance, by the Ignorance crosses beyond death and by the Knowl- edge enjoys Immortality. 12 andhaÌ tamaÕ praviÙanti ye'sambhÓtimupÀsate, tato bhÓya iva te tamo ya u sambhÓtyÀÌ ratÀÕ. Into a blind darkness they enter who follow after the Non-Birth, they as if into a greater darkness who devote themselves to the Birth alone. 13 anyadevÀhuÕ sambhavÀdanyadÀhurasambhavÀt, iti ÙuÙruma dhÈrÀÍÀÌ ye nastadvicacakØire. 1 Anyadeva — eva here gives to anyad the force, “Quite other than the result described in the preceding verse is that to which lead the Knowledge and the Ig- norance.” We have the explanation of anyad in the verse that follows. The ordinary rendering, “Knowledge has one result, Ignorance another”, would be an obvious commonplace announced with an exaggerated pompousness, adding nothing to the thought and without any place in the sequence of the ideas. Translation & commentary published by Sri Aurobindo 9 Other, verily, it is said, is that which comes by the Birth, other that which comes by the Non-Birth; this is the lore we have received from the wise who revealed That to our understanding. 14 sambhÓtiñca vinÀÙañca yastadvedobhayaÌ saha, vinÀÙena mÐtyuÌ tÈrtvÀ sambhÓtyÀ'mÐtamaÙnute. He who knows That as both in one, the Birth and the dissolution of Birth, by the dissolution crosses beyond death and by the Birth enjoys Immortality. 15 hiraÍmayena pÀtreÍa satyasyÀpihitaÌ mukham, tat tvaÌ pÓØannapÀvÐÍu satyadharmÀya dÐØÒaye. The face of Truth is covered with a brilliant golden lid; that do thou remove, O Fosterer,1 for the law of the Truth, for sight. 16 pÓØannekarØe yama sÓrya prÀjÀpatya vyÓha raÙmÈn samÓha, tejo yat te rÓpaÌ kalyÀÍatamaÌ tatte paÙyÀmi yo'sÀvasau puruØaÕ so'hamasmi. O Fosterer, O sole Seer, O Ordainer, O illumining Sun, O power of the Father of creatures, marshal thy rays, draw together thy 1 In the inner sense of the Veda Surya, the Sun-God, represents the divine Il- lumination of the Kavi which exceeds mind and forms the pure self-luminous Truth of things.